ponvspréConfusable pair

Which to use

“pon” and “pré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,075
“pon” frequency rank
#2,849
“pré” frequency rank
45924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pon pré
Definition Pont. Champ où pousse de l’herbe (naturelle ou cultivée), où l’on recueille du foin, ou qui sert au pâturage.

Letter map: pon vs pré

Shared letters muted; letters that set pon and pré apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
pon
3 ch
pré

Corpus notes: pon and pré

pon and pré are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pon is recorded at frequency rank #43,075, classified as anoun. pré is at rank #2,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 45924, this pair ranks #199,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pon vs pré

Shared letters: p. Private to "pon": no. Private to "pré": .

"pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pré" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pon" for "pré" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary French text, does "pon" or "pré" show up more?
"pré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,849 in our French list, against #43,075 for "pon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pon" and "pré".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pon" and "pré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #199,007 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list